English 
Vietnamese On the 25th of November 2019, TRG’s CEO Rick Yvanovich had the honour to speak at the RMIT Global Leadership Forum. The topic covered was about Entrepreneurs versus Serial Entrepreneurs and whether one group is more superior than the other.
Global Leadership Forum is a program designed by Common Purpose and hosted by RMIT University with the purpose of developing student leadership and improving cultural intelligence. The program was launched in 2017 at RMIT University in Melbourne.
This year marked the first time Mr Rick Yvanovich participated in the event as a speaker in front of a crowd full of young, enthusiastic, and talented RMIT students.
Explaining the reasons for joining this year’s RMIT Global Leadership Forum, Rick commented that because his life’s purpose is to inspire and transform professionals for consistently higher achievement. And no opportunity is more perfect than RMIT Global Leadership Forum, a platform that aims to nurture our future global leaders.
Rick chose to cover the topic “Entrepreneurs or Serial Entrepreneurs, which one is better?” Below are some highlights of the talk.
RMIT students warming up before Rick’s talk
Entrepreneurs or Serial entrepreneurs, which one is better?
Rick defines an entrepreneur is an individual who utilises their skills to anticipate customer needs and brings new ideas to the market. An entrepreneur can own one or multiple businesses (ideas).
A serial entrepreneur is an entrepreneur that continually comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses.
Infographic: Are you a traditional or collaborative leader?
Here are a few examples of entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs:
- Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft Corporation, is an Entrepreneur.
- Jeff Bezos, Founder, CEO, and President of Amazon, is an Entrepreneur.
- Elon Musk is a Serial Entrepreneur.
- Oprah Winfrey is a Serial Entrepreneur.
Common traits of a serial entrepreneur
A serial entrepreneur fails quickly
They are constantly churning out new ideas for their new businesses, and not all of their ideas turn out to be good. Failures are unavoidable.
They might stumble and fall, but a serial entrepreneur knows what they want. They learn from failed projects and move on.
A serial entrepreneur is always curious
One may think that a serial entrepreneur jumps around too much and too quickly. They are just eager to learn new things and are quick to create. They tend to have multiple ideas at once, ask tons of questions, seek out new information, and meet up with new people.
A serial entrepreneur has grit
They are resilience and passionate about achieving higher grounds. When the feeling hits, they dive deep into bringing the ideas to life. Nevertheless, they know when to move on. If a failure occurs, they let it go without any lingering feelings.
Rick answering the students’ questions
Before ending the talk, Rick had a quick Q&A session to answer any concerns the students might have about the topic.
Two of the most thought-provoking questions asked were:
- How can an entrepreneur get back up after a failure, and
- As a leader and a serial entrepreneur, what has Rick compromised?
While most entrepreneurs/ serial entrepreneurs have successful exits, their ventures may not be. Rick used a Japanese proverb to answer the first question, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
Even if you have limited time, resources, or people keep putting you down, you have to keep your eyes on the prize and continue to march on.
Read more: 3 pitfalls to avoid in leadership development
Afterwards, Rick agreed that he had made some compromises in life. He believes that not everyone can be satisfied at the same time. What you need to do is to have a solid foundation for your decisions. Even when you do change your mind, don't change your vision and what you believe in. Being consistent is the key to success.
When the students were asked about their experience and thoughts on Rick's session and the Global Leadership Forum as a whole, one of the comments stated:
“This forum is so inspiring, and I feel so thankful for what RMIT has done for us. This opportunity has bridged the gap of race, let me know that I am alone in the running race of life, in the world we would put all of our effort to make the world the better place. Big love from me!”
About Rick Yvanovich
Rick is an Executive Coach, a Serial Entrepreneur, a Techie, a Brit, a baby boomer, and a professional bean counter. He has worked for 40+ years in various industries, ranging from retail, brewing, defence manufacturing, real estate, and oil and gas in the UK, China, Singapore, Switzerland. Today, Rick is based in Vietnam full time, and his primary focuses are IT and F&B.
Rick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), a Fellow of CPA Australia, and has an MSc in Strategic Business Management from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
Rick is an active promoter of CIMA and a very regular speaker in Vietnam on multiple topics, including Accounting, Digital Transformation, Talent, Project Management, Doing Business in Vietnam, and UK-Vietnam and US-Vietnam trade and inward investment.
Rick is a proud Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TRG International and the owner of PJ’s Coffee Vietnam.
Connect with Rick today via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
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